May 1 jobs fair targets unemployed, fresh grads

By Estrella Torres, Business Mirror

MANILA, Philippines - Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz called on the unemployed and graduates fresh from college to fill up the demand for workers and staff in the key employment generator (KEG) industries that will offer 30,000 job vacancies in the forthcoming May 1 jobs fair.

The labor chief said that among the hard-to-fill job vacancies include academic coordinators, computer teachers, fashion designers, graphic artists, visual-display artists, labor-relations experts, as well as staff to be employed in credit and collection work.

The country’s KEG industries are also in need of experts in the heavy equipment, like safety engineers, mechanics and automotive technicians.

The growing hotel-and-restaurant industries in the country are also in need of hard-to-fill staff positions, such as food-and-beverage managers, work-flow managers, receptionists, promotion officers, kitchen staff, and dining personnel, inventory-control staff, as well as maintenance crew and “promodizers.”

“For students taking up college or technical-vocational courses, they are well advised to consider taking up studies, degrees, or training focused or related to these KEGs and emerging industries to ensure that they will have jobs after graduation,” said Baldoz.

The labor chief said the KEG are industries that have been identified in the labor market study of the Department of Labor and Employment that will generate in-demand and hard-to-fill occupations in the next 10 years.

The department also identified four emerging industries, which are creative industries, diversified/strategic farming and fishing, power and utilities and renewable energy.

Baldoz urged job seekers to “tailor fit their qualifications” by undergoing skills training? and enhancing their capabilities to establish careers in these emerging industries.